UNHCR is pleased to launch the revised Collection of International Instruments and Legal Texts Concerning Refugees and Others of Concern to UNHCR. This edition, which supersedes the last one issued in 1995, features significant changes and contains over 260 essential universal and regional instruments and texts concerning refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR.

The 2007 edition takes account of the inter-relationship and complimentarity between, on the one hand, international refugee law and, on the other, human rights, humanitarian, criminal and other bodies of law. It covers a wider thematic area, including statelessness, the internally displaced and the asylum-migration debate (migrants, trafficking, smuggling, maritime and aviation law) as well as matters such as torture, discrimination, detention and the protection of women and children. It should more effectively than ever before complement the legal work in all corners of the world to promote and improve the protection of refugees and other groups envisaged in the scope of the instruments and texts.